Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they be high-budgeted commercials, low-budgeted independent shorts or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attest to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for exhibition of them or even written reviews. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting with short, descriptive overviews.

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image.

This Month:

Love Tricycle (2003), 13:58, directed by Andrew Goode, Australia. Contact: Andrew Goode [W] www.lovetricycle.com [E] info@rendition.com.au

The Monkey and the Bananas (2004), 5:00, directed by Nate Mulliken, U.S. Contact: Nate Mulliken [E] contactnate@yahoo.com

Son of Satan (2003), 12:30, directed by JJ Villard, U.S. Contact: JJ Villard [V] 805.331.0315 [E] jjvillard@hotmail.com

JoJo in the Stars (2003), 12:33, directed by Marc Craste, U.K. Contact: Sue Goffe, Studio AKA [W] www.studioaka.co.uk

Harmony in Red (2003), 8:36, directed by Niki Hyun Jeong Yang, Korea. Contact: Niki Yang[E] niki919@hotmail.com

Love Tricycle explores two-wheeled love. © 2003 Andrew Goode/Pacific Film and Television Commission.

Love Tricycle
There's nothing prurient about Love Tricycle, despite into what exotic locations your mind may currently be wandering. It's just a story of a love triangle among bicycles, geddit? This pleasant romantic actioner about a lovable Everyman, a leading lady and a bully takes place in an alternate reality populated by bicycles.

In a stadium packed with young bikes doing laps and calisthenics, a blue/red instructor bicycle named Beau drills his plebes in proper wheelie techniques on the last day of classes before the holidays. As the stadium empties and he locks the gate, a beauty of a bike done up all in purple glides by. Bec, for that is her name, is being pursued by a bellicose extreme mountain bike with mean-looking grips and painted-on flames. Harley, who is her jilted ex, tries to make nice with Bec while being mean to everybody else, including Bec's pet skateboard Ollie, and the gear-shaped flowers he offers her aren't getting him anywhere.

Later in the local mall, luck goes Beau's way and he saves Bec from falling down an open manhole. Harley is steamed to see Beau and Bec riding off handlebar in handlebar, and he follows them to the park, where things get downright ugly between the two suitors. Beau tries to be a gentleman about it, but when Harley goes too far and forces Beau to run for his life, Beau tricks him into following him back into the stadium where they engage in the ultimate two-wheeled showdown.

A bicycle in its normal state isn't the least bit anthropomorphic, and it's all the more impressive that director Andrew Goode and his animators have telegraphed recognizable emotions for each character from nothing more than the position of a pair of handlebars. This CGI world has a tone akin to the early Pixar short Red's Dream, although the universe on display is several orders of magnitude deeper (it being 17 years on and all). Some good visual puns and inventive cinematography make this compressed and transmogrified Better Off Dead scenario, a wholesomely goofy experience.